Capillary-action nibs or tips for pens and markers are generally elongated bodies made from a variety of materials, including synthetic resins and felts, and are frequently referred to generically as felt tips even though, in many cases, they are made from materials other than felts and usually have a pointed end and a somewhat blunt end.
Such tips or nibs are anchored in the pen or marker body and communicate with a reservoir for the ink or marker fluid which is delivered by a wicking action of the tip to the point. The tips or nibs are therefore also referred to as wicking tips and, for the purposes of the present description, the terms "capillary-action nibs", "wicking nibs", "wick tips" and "writing wicks" may all be used interchangeably to refer to such tips as operate by a wicking action to draw the ink or other marker fluid to the writing point.
It has been proposed in the past, to fabricate such tips from a blank or workpiece which consists of an elongated body of the material of the tip to be formed which is pointed at its ends and which is then subdivided in a plane generally along the longitudinal axis of the body and so that the tube tips which are formed from each body can then be provided with blunt-end flanks at the end thereof opposite the respective points.
The tip which is thus formed provides a large surface area between the tip and the ink reservoir and thus affords an especially good ink flow.
Another advantage of the earlier method is that by subdividing the blank in the manner described to separate two overlapping regions of the tips which are formed from the single blank, two individual tips are obtained with a total length greater than that of the blank.
The aforedescribed method is the subject of German Patent Document No. 24 25 500 and has the disadvantage that the separating operation, which here utilizes a complex tool to simultaneously form the blunt ends or flanks of the tip, is rather complex and requires complicated sharpening operations which are expensive and must be repeated frequently. Between sharpenings or dressings of the cutting tool, rough edges are left in the tips which are produced.